The Toronto Raptors have been getting noticed this off season and with good reason. This team has gotten better. The only thing standing in the way of a guaranteed playoff spot next April may be that Boston, Brooklyn, New York, and Philadelphia have also made big-time additions to their rosters, but improving division rivals do not preclude a dramatic rise from last season’s 23-43 record.

The former Knick Landry Fields provides a more mature small forward in place of James Johnson. Rookie Terrence Ross should become a reasonable offensive replacement for Leandro Barbosa and surpass Barbosa at the defensive end of the floor and rookie Jonas Valanciunas may be the Raptors’ best center from day one.

Anderson is back and Fields will be an upgrade defensively at small forward. Even as a rookie, Valanciunas will improve the Raptors defense at center and all the team’s key big men are back to help hold down the fort.

That narrows the list of candidates down quite a bit, leaving really only two teams who look like a big enough mess to contend for the most ping pong balls in next year’s lottery: the Houston Rockets and the Orlando Magic.

Let the record show that, a year ago, I picked the Utah Jazz as the team most likely to post the worst record of the lockout-shortened season, and they ended up making the playoffs. So these are, of course, just educated guesses that could just as easily be wrong. It’s easy to say that L.A., OKC, and Miami will be the best teams next year, but picking the worst is a much tougher job. Orlando, however, seems like as good a guess as any team.

Other inductees include Don Barksdale, a hoops pioneer who was the first African-American All-American and Olympic basketball player, long-time referee Hank Nichols, and seven-time All-Stars Mel Daniels and Chet Walker. Phil Knight, the co-founder and chairman of Nike, was also inducted, as were Katrina McClain and Lidia Alexeeva, a couple of successful women’s Olympic basketball players.

This has been a tremendous offseason for the Miami HEAT and the Los Angeles Lakers, OKC’s stiffest competition. The HEAT added former All-Stars Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen, while the Lakers reloaded with serious upgrades at point guard and center in Steve Nash and Dwight Howard.

The Los Angeles Lakers are geared up for another potential championship run in 2012-13. Lakers head coach Mike Brown could not be in a better position to succeed with the additions of Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, and Antawn Jamison. Their arrivals have revitalized a Lakers team that has been eliminated in the second round two consecutive seasons. They’re going to make Brown’s job a lot easier, but in an interview with ESPN.com’s Brian Kamenetzky he explains that a normal schedule and year of experience will help him just as much as the new pieces the team added.

Additions like rookie Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, trade acquisition Ben Gordon, amnesty claim Brendan Haywood, and free agent signee Ramon Sessions all make this team look a whole lot better heading into 2012-2013, at least on paper, and further development from young players like Gerald Henderson and Bismack Biyombo shouldn’t hurt anything, either. Adding to the optimism is the fact that there are a lot of people who believe new head coach Mike Dunlap is good enough to bring it all together.

One of the team’s strengths this season will be the backcourt with Williams, Jeff Teague and former All-Star Devin Harris expected to get the lion’s share of minutes at guard. From afar, Williams has admired both of his new backcourt mates.